The Obama administration should be applauded for pursuing this case. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the White House would “go to the mat for American workers and businesses to make sure that the playing field is fair and level.” That’s absolutely right.

China’s decision to promote its own industry and discriminate against U.S. companies has caused U.S. manufacturers to pay as much as three times more than what their Chinese competitors pay for the exact same rare earths. WTO rules prohibit this kind of discriminatory export restraint and this win today, along with our win 2 years ago in an earlier case, demonstrates that clearly.

On a similar issue, however, it’s worth asking what makes China’s rare-earth metals protectionism any different from what the Obama administration is doing on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Today’s rare-earths decision is particularly timely, coming just one day after the former chairman of the World Trade Organization’s appeals panel warned a congressional committee that the Obama administration’s approach to LNG exports likely violates WTO rules.

Let’s hope the administration recognizes the inconsistency of differing approaches on trade. It should grant approval to all of the proposed projects that are awaiting review, and let the market determine which ones will go forward. That would make sure “the playing field is fair and level,” to use Ambassador Froman’s words.

And it just might spare the United States a rebuke from the very same WTO that the administration this morning commended.